


Escape From Oz

by sarcastic_fi



Category: Law & Order: SVU, Oz (TV)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-04-30
Updated: 2012-04-30
Packaged: 2017-11-04 14:54:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/395093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarcastic_fi/pseuds/sarcastic_fi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Ryan O'Reily escapes briefly from OZ and is caught in the apartment of Gloria Nathan, he is arrested by Elliot and Olivia. Gloria calls Toby in to defend Ryan, and it all gets very messy. </p><p>- Discussion of past rape, accusations of rape and mentions of a dead character (canon). Spoilers for the entire seasons of Oz.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Escape From Oz

Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson, two detectives from the New York Police who served in an elite unit that dealt with sex crimes and crimes against children known as the Special Victims Unit, were poised outside an apartment complex in New York that had a good reputation waiting for a signal from the SWAT guys to enter. They’d started work this morning to find out they were being pulled from all their open cases to help NYPD deal with a mass escape from Oswald Correctional facility, a prison just outside New York city that houses some of the most prolific and dangerous offenders in the system, including a variety of sex offenders. The worst of the worst. Many had scattered to their home towns and been recaptured in the forty eight hours since the escape, but some of the more devious ones had eluded even the FBI. Thirty minutes ago there had been a call from an apartment in this building from a Dr Gloria Nathan who worked at the prison saying that one of the prisoners had shown up at her door, that she needed them to come take him back. The biggest fear right now was that it was one of the more dangerous convicts, a murderer or rapist and that Dr Nathan was in danger. 

“Go!” A voice hissed through the walkie-talkie and Elliot and Liv took off, entering the apartment guns first. First they heard the crying, a heart wrenching sobbing coming from a Latina woman with beautiful brown eyes dressed in a bathrobe and little else. Turning around they saw three of the SWAT agents holding back a desperately angry man, thin with scruffy short brown hair and a surprising amount of strength.

“You bitch, Gloria!” He yelled. “You fucking betrayed me! I would never do that to you!” He continued, his voice hoarse from the volume of his words.

Dr Nathan shook with sobs. “I know,” she said. “I’m sorry! God, I’m sorry, I’m so fucking sorry,” she said between gasps of breath. She watched as one of the men took a nightstick to the convict. “No!” She shouted, surging up, “don’t hurt him!” She said, to everyone’s surprise. “Ryan, just go with them. Please!” 

O’Reily, Ryan. That was who this was. He used to run a street gang of Irish-Americans known as the Bridget street gang. Convicted in 1997 on two counts of vehicular manslaughter, five counts of reckless endangerment, possession of a controlled substance, criminal possession of a weapon and parole violation. More importantly though he had been re-convicted while serving out his original sentence with murder in the first degree. Perhaps an example of a man that prison had only made worse. Extremely dangerous. Elliot had no idea why the man had been so stupid as to come to Dr Nathan’s house. He must have known she would turn him in. Although this wasn’t going down quite as he had expected.

“Fuck you, Gloria!” O’Reily yelled before struggling even more. The team knocked him out and carried his unconscious body out of the apartment. The recaptured convict would be fine, he’d wake up in OZ with a concussion and an extra charge on his sentence. Dr Nathan collapsed on the floor in a mass of tears that jerked her whole body. Olivia immediately holstered her gun and embraced the woman.

“It’s okay now, it’s going to be fine,” she soothed her, rubbing a hand against her back as she did. Elliot left the room, doing a cursory search of the apartment in case O’Reily had left any weapons or devices around. Nothing, it was clean. The bedroom and kitchen were a mess though, the bed had recently been slept in by what seemed to be two people and the kitchen had signs of a struggle in it, the phone hanging precariously from the hook, a broken glass and a chair knocked over.

“He’ll never forgive me,” Elliot heard Dr Nathan stutter out. He shared a puzzled glance with Olivia but his phone rang before he had a chance to question it.  
“Stabler I need you back here now,” Captain Cragan informed him.

“Sure,” he agreed and covered the phone receiver to speak to his partner, “Liv, can you take it from here?” He asked and she nodded and Elliot left.

 

Hours later Olivia returned to the precinct and greeted her partner with a wary sigh. Before he could ask her what had happened the Captain was ordering them into his office. With a shrug he followed Olivia. “Sir?” Elliot asked, as Olivia sank gratefully into the chair opposite Cragan’s desk and he leaned against the back wall.

“I want you both to interview O’Reily,” he informed the two detectives.

“I thought he was being sent back to OZ?” Elliot asked.

“Not yet. We need to get his side of events before we send him back. You have four hours. Get what you can then go home, get some sleep,” Cragan ordered.  
“Nathan refused to allow a rape kit to be taken. She isn’t pressing charges,” Olivia said, sounding angry about it  
.  
Cragan sighed. It had been a long day, and it wasn’t over yet. “Do it anyway,” he ordered before dismissing them.

“You want me to handle this? You look wiped,” Elliot observed.

Olivia shook her head. “I’m only as tired as you are and I won’t sleep until we get a confession. If he talks then maybe we can convince Dr Nathan to come forward too,” she said.

“I don’t blame her for not wanting to talk about it. Most women who come through here having been raped hold this fear that they’ll have to see their rapist again, usually its irrational once they get sentenced. Dr Nathan knows she’ll see O’Reily every day at work,” Elliot mused.

“That’s all the more reason for her to come forward, if she tells us what happened then we can get him moved to another prison and she won’t have to see him ever again! I can’t imagine why she’s keeping quiet, it must be terrifying to know she’ll have to see him when she goes back to work.”

They entered the interview room together. O’Reily had his head on his arms resting, eyes closed. He didn’t look enraged any longer, neither did he look particularly worried. Elliot guessed that for a convict like O’Reily who had spent time in and out of jail since he was a teen this was just a case of same shit different day. Olivia slammed down the file and O’Reily reluctantly woke up, blinking hazily at them both. Then he jumped up, backing away into a corner his eyes scared and focused on Elliot.

“What the fuck!” He whispered. “Keller? Is that you, you fuck?” He asked.

Olivia frowned looking from her partner’s puzzled face to the raw fear etched on O’Reily’s features. “Mr O’Reily please sit down. I’m Detective Olivia Benson and this is my partner, Detective Elliot Stabler. We’re with the Special Victims Unit of the NYPD,” Olivia introduced them, and shock replaced the fear although O’Reily still seemed wary as he edged towards the chair in the centre of the room.

“A cop? No shit. This is like something out of a freaking sci-fi. Jeez.”

“O’Reily, what the hell are you babbling about?” Elliot asked, playing tough guy to Olivia’s softly-softly approach.

“You even sound like him,” O’Reily seemed awed.

“Who?” Olivia frowned.

O’Reily’s gaze never left Elliot’s face. “Tell me, Detective, you got any brothers?” He asked.

Elliot shared a surprised look with Olivia. “Three,” he answered.

“Yeah? Any of them identical?” 

“No,” Elliot answered shortly.

“And the name Chris Keller means nothing to you?” He asked, looking between Olivia and Elliot.

They both shrugged, shaking their heads. “I think your momma’s lying to you, but hey.” O’Reily dismissed it.

“Can we get on with our questions now?” Elliot asked sarcastically.

“Sure,” O’Reily tossed them a smile that did nothing to hide the ice in his eyes.

“You escaped from Oswald with the bulk of the prisoners in Emerald City, correct?” Elliot said, using facts from the file to start with.

He shrugged. “Yeah, so what,” he said. “Saw a chance, took it.”

“Didn’t turn out very well for you, did it?” Olivia pointed out sympathetically.

“Maybe it would have gone better if you hadn’t stopped by Dr Nathan’s house,” Elliot suggested.

“Is that what this is about? Me visiting Gloria?” O’Reily asked, incredulous.

“You seem awful friendly with her, first name basis and all,” Elliot noted.

“She saved my life,” O’Reily shrugged it off, but he was tenser now.

“She’s a doctor, Ryan, it’s her job to save people’s lives,” Olivia said gently.

“No,” O’Reily shook his head adamantly, “no, you don’t understand. No one does. We love each other,” he claimed.

Elliot winced inside. There it was, the delusion that had lead this sick freak to Dr Nathan’s house to rape her when he could have been attempting to flee the state, hell the country, like some of the other inmates. “If she loves you so much, O’Reily, then why did she turn you in?”

O’Reily glared at him. “Because she’s a good woman, that’s why.”

“If you knew she was going to turn you in why go to see her at all, Ryan?” Liv asked.

“Or was it just that you wanted to rape her so badly that you didn’t care if you got caught, huh?” Elliot asked.

Ryan jumped out of his seat, enraged. “Fuck you! I never raped no one, especially not Gloria! She’d never fucking say that! Fucking cocksuckers!” What surprised Elliot was that O’Reily seemed genuinely upset that someone would think that. The freak must really believe that he loved her and that it was consensual. Maybe that explained why Dr Nathan was so upset earlier, she honestly doesn’t blame him because she knows his delusion. However, as far as Elliot was concerned that didn’t excuse what he did. Rape was rape, and there was nothing he wanted more than to add another ten years to this sick bastard’s sentence. It wasn't like O'Reily had a chance at parole either way, it was the principal of the thing.

“Sit down, O’Reily!” Elliot barked at the convict who was pacing the room.

“Fuck that! I want my lawyer!” O’Reily shouted back, getting in Elliot’s face and pointing.

Elliot slapped O’Reily’s hand away and stormed out of the room, followed swiftly by Olivia. “That could have gone better,” she observed. 

Elliot sighed angrily. “He’s been in the system long enough to know all the games and ploys. I don’t think we’ll get a confession out of him. He believes his own lies.”  
“Maybe we can use that to our advantage?” Liv suggested.

“How?” Elliot asked, sceptical.

“I’ll get back to you on that. I need to talk to Huang first,” she said and disappeared off. Elliot resigned himself to letting someone know that O’Reily’s lawyer needed to be called and set off.

 

“I can’t believe you’re going,” Angus exclaimed, a worried expression marring his classically handsome face. He was so young in comparison to his brother, and it wasn’t just the eight years age gap between them, but also the fact that Toby had been to prison by the time he was Angus’s age. It aged a man.

“Well I am. Look, I don’t expect you to understand, Angus, but I can’t just forget that part of my life however much I want to, so I’m trying to use it in a positive way,” Toby explained as he fixed his tie. He was wearing a suit again, something he only did on official business now. Suits chaffed after all he had been through. At first all he had wanted was to be adorned in perfectly fitted stylish suits of the most expensive fabric, but it gave people the wrong impression about him and he found it difficult pretending to be someone he no longer was day in and day out. So more often than not he could be seen in jeans and shirts. Still, when doing his pro-bono work with the prisoners of OZ he found a suit was the only way people took him seriously.

“Every time you answer a call from them, you put your relationship with your children in jeopardy!” Angus said. 

Toby swung back to confront his brother, his OZ face on, one of pure fury and rage. “Don’t fucking threaten my relationship with my kids, Angus. You’re my brother and I love you, but sometimes you don’t know what you are talking about. Back the fuck off!”

Angus blanched. He wasn’t used to this side of his brother. Before going to OZ Toby had always been the first one to back down in an argument, the first to try and make peace even at his own expense. That Toby had died in OZ, and maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing, however there was no way it was completely a good thing either. “Fine. It’s your life,” Angus said.

“Yes, it is,” Toby said and strode out of the house, pausing to watch Holly and Harry running around the large garden with the nanny he employed. He had been lucky to get custody of his children when he had returned for a second time, but luckily he’d had a judge who believed that children should be raised by their natural parents as much as possible, and nothing in Toby’s past suggested he would hurt his own children intentionally. Of course it all still relied on him keeping to the conditions of his parole, and after he had proved he could for the time of one year the children had been allowed to live permanently with him. That had been four months ago, things were still uneasy between them but every day was another chance for him to prove he loved them, that he was worthy of their love and trust. He just had to be patient with them.

An hour later he arrived at the precinct. 

“Beecher,” he was greeted by a familiar voice frantic with worry and stress. Normal, then, for Dr Nathan who’s job put her in danger every day and that was on top of having to deal with the stress of being in charge of people’s lives and well-being. “Thank god you’re here. You have to help him out before they add another charge to his sentence. He didn’t do it and they aren’t listening.” Her voice held and edge of hysteria and Toby could see she hadn’t slept.

Beecher rubbed his hands down the arms in a gesture meant to be friendly. He’d never been close with Gloria the way he had been with Sister Pete and he respected her personal boundaries especially knowing she had been raped a few years ago, but he wanted to comfort her in a non threatening way. She shuddered out a sigh and relaxed ever so slightly. “What exactly are they accusing O’Reily of?” He asked.

“Raping me,” she said.

“And he didn’t,” Beecher said, a statement not a question. There were a few boundaries that dangerous prisoners like O’Reily and Keller who had long ago traded their morals for street-cred had, but having been locked up for over seven years with them Beecher was sure he knew what they were. Chris wouldn’t have hurt his children, ever, and he knew that now even if he had doubted it when his children had been kidnapped. Grief will make you think crazy things. And O’Reily wouldn’t rape Gloria Nathan, he couldn’t commit that last act that he knew would drive her away from him forever. If they had been intimate Beecher was sure it had been consensual. “Don’t worry, they have nothing. I’ll have him out of police custody and onto a transport to OZ in less than an hour.” He smiled at her then and saw she was relieved.

“Can I see my client now, please?” Toby said loudly and a rookie police officer who’d been lurking near the coffee pot took him to see O’Reily.

And Keller was there.

Toby puked.

“Fuck, law-boy I was betting you’d faint. Lucky I ain’t got money riding on you, huh!” O’Reily, that fuck, was laughing as he watched Beecher rise from the floor where he had clutched a paper waste basket and turn to face the man who looked so much like the one who haunted his dreams. Literally.

“Detective Stabler I presume,” he rasped out, not holding his hand out since he had just thrown up. That was the name the rookie had given him.

Stabler looked confused, and angry. The expression didn’t remind Toby too much of Chris since Keller had been on guard almost all the time, never letting his confusion show in case it be used against him. The anger was normal, however Stabler’s lacked the fiery intensity that Chris had always had. He breathed in deeply in through his nose.

“I’m Tobias Beecher, Mr O’Reily’s lawyer. I can barely believe I had to come down here, though. You have no evidence, no victim, and a suspect who’s on his way back to a maximum security prison serving out life. What did you hope to gain from interviewing him?” Toby asked, lawyer face on.

“A confession,” Stabler admitted baldly.

“I didn’t do nothing!” O’Reily interrupted.

“Without Dr Nathan’s testimony, which she is not willing to give since she informs me there was no rape, you have nothing. I suggest you release Mr O’Reily into the custody of OZ and forget this ever happened, before it becomes even more of an embarrassment for your precinct,” Toby said.

“We were just covering all bases. We arrived at the apartment to find Dr Nathan very distressed and signs of a struggle. Any other day we’d be the hero of the piece,” Stabler said, his voice was mild but his jaw was ticking with the effort it must have taken not to tell Beecher to fuck off. Cops, all the same. Think they can pick and chose which parts of the law to listen to and arrest people left right and centre without thoughts of civil liberties or rights. Not that O’Reily had a leg to stand on, stupid idiot, escaped from OZ and he goes to see a staff member? Love was definitely blind, deaf, and stupid.

“Not today, detective. You’re on the next bus to OZ, O’Reily,” Beecher said.

“Thanks for nothing, Beecher,” O’Reily called back.

“By the way, I already knew. If this was all some fucked up idea of entertainment while you waited for them to realise they were jumping the gun on the charges then I hope it played out just as you wanted. Next time you call maybe I won’t answer,” Toby said, looking straight at Ryan O’Reily’s cold eyes. The other man nodded. They understood each other, even if they both knew better than to believe each other.

“What just happened?” Stabler watched Beecher leave.

“You got your ass handed to you by a skel of an ex-lawyer,” O’Reily informed him, grinning.

“Skel? He did time. Him?” Stabler sounded doubtful.

“Eight years at OZ, baby,” O’Reily said.

“What for?” Elliot asked.

O’Reily frowned. “You’re the cop, go violate his rights and read his file. Why the fuck you still interrogating me, I’m free to go, remember?” 

“Yeah,” Stabler huffed. “Free to go back to OZ.”  
...


End file.
